1965
William H. Foege, MPH, SD ’97, published The Fears of the Rich, The Needs of the Poor: My Years at the CDC (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018). The book tells the stories of pivotal moments in public health, including the eradication of smallpox (made possible due in part to Foege’s research) and the discovery of HIV/AIDS.
1969
Davida Coady, MPH, died May 30, 2018, at age 80. She worked as a physician and medical instructor in 35 countries, including Biafra, a short-lived state that declared independence from Nigeria in 1967, triggering a civil war. Coady raised awareness in the U.S. of Biafra’s famine, pushing the Nixon administration to enhance relief efforts, and later served as a field epidemiologist with the World Health Organization’s smallpox eradication campaign in India. She also served vulnerable populations in California as a clinician and substance-abuse counselor, and held faculty positions at the University of California.
1976
Lawrence Deyton, SM, received the James D. Bruce Memorial Award from the American College of Physicians in April 2018 at the organization’s annual conference in Philadelphia. The award recognizes distinguished contributions in preventive medicine. Deyton is the Murdock Head Professor of Medicine and Health Policy and senior associate dean for clinical public health at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He previously spent more than 30 years in leadership positions in federal health and public health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, and National Institutes of Health. His career accomplishments include helping found one of the first community health centers to focus on care for LGBT people, leading HIV therapeutic research while at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and implementing the first public health regulations of tobacco products in the United States, as the inaugural director of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products.
Judith Salerno, SM, was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in October 2018. Salerno, president of the New York Academy of Medicine, was recognized for her innovative contributions to addressing the health needs of the underserved and vulnerable, including improved palliative care for veterans, programs to combat childhood obesity, and initiatives to reduce racial disparities in breast cancer.
1987
Doug Brugge, PhD, SM ’88, published Particles in the Air: The Deadliest Pollutant Is One You Breathe Every Day (Springer International Publishing, 2018). Geared toward nonscientists, this book covers the largest sources of particulate matter pollution: indoor cooking fuel, tobacco smoke, and fossil fuel combustion. It highlights the health risks they pose and efforts to eliminate them.
Thomas Noseworthy, MPH, became CEO of the board of the British Columbia Academic Health Science Network in June 2018. He is a critical care physician and member of the Order of Canada, with previous leadership positions including associate chief medical officer of the Alberta Health Services and head of the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary.
Jenny Huey-Jen Su, SM, SD ’90, was featured in Nature as a Science Star of East Asia in June 2018, and was named to Asian Scientist magazine’s Asian Scientist 100 list for 2018. Su, president of National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, has conducted research on airborne microbial hazards and helped shape environmental policies at the national and international level.
1988
Mark Eisenberg, MPH, published Cardiology Board Review and Self-Assessment: A Companion Guide to Hurst’s the Heart (McGraw-Hill Education, 2018). This study guide complements the 14th edition of Hurst’s the Heart, a cardiology textbook. Eisenberg is the director of the MD-PhD Program at McGill University.
1992
Carolyn Langer, MPH, was named senior vice president and chief medical officer of Fallon Health in May 2018. Langer previously was the company’s medical director, and most recently served as MassHealth’s chief medical officer and director of the office of clinical affairs. Langer also is an instructor at Harvard Chan School, where she sits on the Occupational Medicine Residency Advisory Committee.
1993
Ramy Mahmoud, MPH, president and COO of the pharmaceutical company Optinose, received an EY Life Sciences Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Greater Philadelphia area, in June 2018. The company focuses on patients treated by ear, nose, and throat and allergy specialists.
1997
Yvette Roubideaux, MPH, was elected to the Harvard University Board of Overseers for a six-year term in May 2018. She is director of the Policy Research Center, National Congress of American Indians.
2000
Chandak Ghosh, MPH, a captain in the U.S. Public Health Service, received one of its highest honors in June: the Meritorious Service Medal, for his policy research and leadership in promoting health equity. Ghosh is an ophthalmologist and a senior medical adviser for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. His work on Asian American health has focused national efforts on improving data collection and increasing research funding for this ethnic group, and has been presented before Congress and at the White House. He has been a major organizer for the South Asian Public Health Association, helped found the South Asian Health Project, served on the board of the National Council of Asian American and Pacific Islander Physicians, and served as a member of the White House Initiative for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
2001
Meghna Chakrabarti, SM, was named host and editor of the radio program On Point from NPR and WBUR in August. She previously hosted WBUR’s Radio Boston. Chakrabarti has received awards from both the Associated Press and the Radio Television News Directors Association for her writing, hard news reporting, and use of sound.
2002
Nadine Burke Harris became California’s first
surgeon general on February 11. Burke Harris, a pediatrician, is renowned for her work linking traumatic childhood experiences to increased risk of health problems—including asthma, diabetes, and heart disease—later in life. She plans to make the issue of early trauma a top priority in her new role. In an interview with EdSource.org, Burke Harris noted, “We must recognize that to implement public health solutions we need to be engaging across sectors. In our educational system, in our health system, in our justice system, we need to have broad-scale and coordinated efforts to address the impact of early adversity on health and development.”
Burke Harris is founder of the Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco and author of the book The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018).
2004
Ellen Agler, MPH, published Under the Big Tree: Extraordinary Stories from the Movement to End Neglected Tropical Diseases (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019). The book, which includes a foreword by Bill Gates, offers a moving introduction to the science, tactics, and partnerships involved in the fight against terrible diseases affecting more than 1 billion of the world’s poorest people.
2010
Alden Landry, MPH, received the Alfred Frechette Award during the Massachusetts Public Health Association Awards Breakfast in June 2018. The award is presented annually to a person age 40 or younger of high accomplishment and promise in the health field in Massachusetts.
2012
Bethany Holmes, SM, was promoted by Tufts Health Plan in August to director of provider performance management. She previously was manager of commercial provider contracting and commercial provider engagement.
2015
James McGowan, MPH and Payal Patel, MPH, teamed up for a paper on how hospital doctors can improve public health in the U.K. It was published in the British Journal of Hospital Medicine in November.
2017
Abraar Karan, MPH, was named a MedTech Boston 40 under 40 health care innovator and a STAT News Wunderkind in 2018. Karan is an internal medicine resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and a member of the Doris and Howard Hiatt Residency in Global Health Equity. He co-created hour72+, a three-day insect repellent that won first place at the 2018 Harvard Business School New Venture Competition.
2018
Michael Rose, MPH, was named a 2018 Pisacano Scholar by the leadership foundation of the American Board of Family Practice in September. He is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Rose plans to become a family physician and hopes to work with policymakers.
Aakanksha (Aaka) Pande SM ’05, PhD ’11 died on July 21 at age 37. She was a senior economist at the World Bank, where her work included strengthening country health systems, addressing humanitarian crises, and creating novel tools to assess the health impact of conflicts in Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza. She worked on training female health workers in rural Pakistan, combating infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, and leading an initiative to provide quality and affordable health care to Syrian refugees in Jordan. She contributed to the World Bank’s Flagship Course on Health System Strengthening and was a guest editor of a special issue of the journal Health Systems & Reform on the Middle East and North Africa.
The Department of Global Health and Population has launched a fund in Pande’s honor to support summer research internships for students in the two-year Master of Science Program in areas including the health of underprivileged women and children, health services in conflict zones and for refugees, and health care systems in low-income countries. The financial support awarded to students will be known as Aaka Pande Memorial Awards. To contribute: hsph.me/aakapandefund.
Photos: © J.D. Levine Photography, Office of the California Governor
